02: Social Cohesion in a Wider Europe

The ongoing crisis has hit many European countries, further aggravating severe social problems. The Southern Member States face the toughest challenges, from illegal migration to poverty reduction. Faced with these challenges, we have to ask how it will be possible to finance the welfare state in the long run. Indeed, these challenges show that the future of the entire European project depends on the strength of our social cohesion. How can we guarantee social stability in different European regions? How will we deal with migration in the future? Do we as Europeans share a common responsibility for those in need?

Director, Krytyka Polityczna, Warsaw

Slawomir Sierakowski is a Polish sociologist and political commentator, who founded and leads Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique), the biggest eastern European movement of liberal intellectuals, artists and activists, with branches in Ukraine and Russia. He is the director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Warsaw and the president of the Stanislaw Brzozowski Association, overseeing its publishing house; its online daily "Dziennik Opinii"; cultural centres in Warsaw, Gdansk, Lodz and Cieszyn, in Poland, and in Kiev, Ukraine; and 20 local clubs.

Mr. Sierakowski has been awarded fellowships from Yale, Princeton and Harvard and from the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He has written for many journals and newspapers, including The Guardian, ElPaís, Haaretz and die tageszeitung, Dissent, Transit, A2. He contributes a monthly column to the Polish leading daily "Gazeta Wyborcza" and to the international edition of the New York Times. Mr Sierakowski has been ranked as one of the most influential Poles by "Polityka", "Wprost" and"Newsweek".